This invention relates generally to toy register banks, and more particularly to a three-coin bank which accepts and totals up nickeks, dimes and quarters.
Toy banks have a long history in the United States, for since early times they have been used to foster financial prudence in children. The continuing popularity of toy banks, apart from their useful teaching function, may be ascribed to their play value; for children enjoy dropping coins into the bank and ringing up the amount deposited. Then, of course, with toy banks, the diligent young saver is ultimately rewarded; for when a predetermined amount of coins has been deposited, as when the treasury in the coin box reaches $20, the locked door of the cash box is automatically released to make the accumulated coins available to the saver.
A coin register bank is distinguishable from a so-called piggy bank, which is simply a receptacle for coins, by the fact that when a coin is deposited, the value thereof is indicated by a register which acts to total up the deposited coins to provide a running account of the successive deposits.
The concern of the present invention is with the three-coin register banks adapted to accept nickels, dimes and quarters. A conventional bank of this type includes a lever-operated drum provided with a coin receiver, the arrangement being such that when a coin is deposited and the lever is then pulled down, the coin is caused to drop into the cash box, this action being accompanied by the ringing of a bell and registration of the amount deposited.
The drum is rotatably mounted on an axle above the cash box, the axle also supporting first and second register wheels. The first wheel has a peripheral scale graduated in 5-point increments to cover 100 points. The second wheel, assuming a bank having a 20-dollar capacity, has a scale graduated in steps of 1 to cover 20 points.
The drum is coupled by a clutch plate to a circular series of teeth on the side of the first wheel facing the plate such that when the drum is turned to deposit a received coin, the first wheel is caused to advance incrementally to an extent determined by the value of the coin. Thus starting with an empty bank, if the child deposits a nickel, when he pulls down the lever, the first wheel will shift from 00 to 05. If now he deposits a quarter, the first wheel will go from 05 to 30; and if he then drops in a dime, it will go from 30 to 40. The first wheel completes a full revolution when one dollar in coins has been received.
The second wheel is intermittently coupled to the first wheel so that the second wheel is caused to advance a single one-point step each time the first wheel makes a full turn. Thus if the first wheel makes three full turns, indicating that 3 dollars in coins have been received, for each of these turns the second wheel advances one step and displays the number 3 after the first wheel has made its third turn. When the second wheel reaches 20, which is the capacity of the bank, the second wheel then activates the cash box door lock release.
The problem to which the present invention is addressed is that of overshooting; for with a standard three-coin register bank, when the lever which operates the coin-receiving drum is pulled down hard and fast, the drum coupled by the clutch plate to the first register wheel may cause this wheel to overtravel. The reason for this is the momentum imparted to the first wheel by a fast-moving drum, the momentun causing this wheel to go beyond its intended point.
Thus when a quarter is deposited in the drum receiver and the lever is then pulled down very fast, this may cause the first wheel to register a 30-point rather than a 25-point increment. As a consequence, the register is rendered inaccurate and the bank fails to fulfil its intended purpose.